Eat Pray Love Author Lobbies Congress to End LGBT Discrimination

Best-selling author Elizabeth Gilbert, whose book “Eat, Pray, Love” was recently released as a film starring Julia Roberts, today joins the Immigration Equality Action Fund to lobby Congress for passage of The Uniting American Families Act (UAFA), a bill to end discrimination faced by lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans and their children, who are unable to sponsor their foreign-born partners for residency in the United States. Gilbert will meet with key Congressional lawmakers and call on elected leaders to pass UAFA. Gilbert’s recent best-seller, Committed, chronicles her experience as the American half of a straight, binational couple.

Gilbert is joined at today’s press event by Congressman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), lead House sponsor of UAFA; UAFA co-sponsor Congressman Mike Honda (D-CA), Chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus and lead sponsor of the LGBT-inclusive Reuniting Families Act; and Rachel B. Tiven , executive director of the Immigration Equality Action Fund.

More than 36,000 LGBT binational families are impacted by current law, with nearly 17,000 of those families raising young children. In conjunction with Gilbert’s visit to Capitol Hill, the Immigration Equality Action Fund has also launched an online campaign – Engage, Lobby, Love – to encourage allies to join Gilbert in a virtual campaign, on September 30, and call on Congress to pass the Uniting American Families Act.

The event takes place today at 1 pm in Room 2358-C, Rayburn House Office Building in Washington, DC.